Over the weekend, several media outlets reported that the Trump administration planned to block the Pebble Limited Partnership’s (PLP) mine in Alaska. However, according to PLP, the company received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) outlining their expectations for compensatory mitigation wetlands impacts associated with the project, which had been anticipated and is a “normal letter in the permitting process.” It reiterated that the move was not a delay or pause in the permitting process.
PLP CEO Tom Collier said the company is currently working on the compensatory mitigation plan (CMP) to present to the Corps that complies with the requirements sent in the letter. The Corps gave the company 90 days to submit the plan.
Collier said the letter stated the Corps “is continuing its work toward a record of decision for the project. This is the next step in what has been a comprehensive, exhaustive 2.5-year review of the project. Nothing in the letter is a surprise to us or them.”
In the letter, the Corps identified the wetlands and stream impacts at the project mine site that includes about 3,000 acres of wetlands and 100 miles of streams. The USACE stated the mitigation must be in kind and in watershed. PLP said it intends to include a plan to preserve enough land so multiples of the number of impacted wetlands acres are preserved. Additional mitigation will also be provided for the transportation corridor, the company said.
PLP said this is the first time the Corps has put its formal assessment regarding mitigation for the Pebble Project on the record. This was a first request, not a new or additional one, Collier added.
“We have been working on the details of a plan with the USACE and the State of Alaska since earlier in the summer. We have had crews in the field near the site since the end of July conducting additional wetlands surveys to provide us with additional information to include in our plan.
The company was informed six weeks ago which way the Corps was leaning regarding mitigation needs and it began to focus on the preliminary plan. “We built two temporary camps in the watershed housing a total of about 25 people,” Collier said. “A number of teams from those camps have been mapping the wetlands in the region for about four weeks now.”
“Anyone suggesting a different opinion—i.e., that Pebble will not be able to comply with the letter or that such compliance will significantly delay issuing a ROD—must be ignorant of the extensive preparation we have undertaken in order to meet the requirements of the letter,” he added.
He added that the CMP will be submitted within weeks and the company believes will satisfy all of the requirements of the letter.
